Customer Reviews

The Widow's Season

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

By the middle of this wonderful book I was forcing myself not to read the last chapter to see where Brodie was going with this tale. Weaving reality and fantasy you find your self hoping and wondering and imagining an even larger tale.

Sarah McConnell is in her late thirties and has been married for a little more then 15 years when her husband in supposedly killed in a kayaking accident. He body has never been recovered, but yet one day three months later she sees him in the grocery store. There he is across the isle from her. After a quick distraction she looks over again and he's gone. Not sure of what she saw or didn't see she returns home even more bewildered then before.

Then the noises and bumps around the house begin, how can David be back, but on Halloween night he knocks on her door with quite a tale to tell. What is she to do. She can't tell anyone that she has seen him, the widow's club tells her that it takes a full season to get over a loss, but yet, David is there. She now must meet him clandestinely at their old cabin, she must move on with her life, but not leave David behind.

By the end of this book you are just mesmerized by the story that Bodie tells. You hope, but you fear to hope, because sometimes it takes a season to heal.

This book is about a woman who's husband dies in a flood but the body hasn't been found yet. They hold a memorial service. She gets paid the life insurance. They she starts seeing him.

I like books that kept me questioning and wondering what's true and what isn't. Good book.

I really liked this book. I know it has had some mixed reviews but here's my two cents.

The main character, Sarah, (a 39 year old childless widow) sees her dead husband in a grocery store. She doesn't just see someone who looks like him, she sees him in his clothes looking at her.

And so begins the story. Sarah is trying to come to terms with widowhood, especially at a young age. Top that with the fact that her husband's body has never been recovered after his suspected drowning accident.

So, throughout the book, as Sarah encounters her dead husband, I found myself asking, "Is he really dead? Is he a ghost? Is it her imagination?"

Throw in a very handsome, single and attentive brother-in-law, a cabin in the woods, and a widow support group.

The story is wonderful as Sarah rediscovers herself and her purpose in life without her husband (or maybe with him...?).
It kept me wanting to read more and try to figure out how it would end. The story was touching and romantic.

Sarah feels like a real person. She is likable and I felt her grief (and sometimes lack of grief). Not being a widow myself, it's hard to understand how it would really feel but Laura Brodie does a great job giving us a glimpse in to the mind of this widow.

I really liked the ending and found that it fit the flow of the story.

This is a easy going book to read but interesting story line.

Highly recommended reading.

My husband and I read "Widow's Season" at the same time and had different ideas about what was going on with Sarah's supposedly newly dead husband. My husband thought David faked his death to escape an increasingly strained marriage and to spy on his wife (and perhaps on his brother as well). I on the other hand was convinced David was either a ghost or a vivid figment of Sarah's imagination. First-time novelist Laura Brodie leaves you guessing until the end, and vividly captures both the agony and the opportunity of losing someone you love, or loved. The theme of seasons (from David's ghostly appearance on Halloween to a sort of resolution at Easter) adds both symbolism and a VERY interesting idea about how to celebrate Valentine's Day!

The Basic Story: The opening line of the novel sets the scene perfectly: "Sarah McConnell's husband had been dead three months when she saw him in the grocery story." Right away, we are thrust into Sarah's confusing world--where her grief and mourning play tricks on her mind. When she confesses her "vision" at a widow's group, she finds support and empathy. After all, it is normal to "see" your loved ones when the loss is fresh and new. (I remember "seeing" my dad everywhere after he died. I'd glimpse a man with his build across the room and it would take my breath away. Of course, they always turned around and the illusion would be broken.) Complicating Sarah's loss is that her husband David's body was never recovered after his kayak was swept away in a flash flood. As Sarah attempts to create a life without David, she is forced to confront the realities of their marriage and some of her long-buried feelings. And as she continues to sense and feel David's presence, she begins to wonder if the fact that David's body was never found means something different after all.

My Thoughts: Oooohhh...this was so good! It had everything a good ghost story should--unease, dread, longing, hope, uncertainty and (finally) closure. Brodie does such a brilliant job of keeping you guessing about what is actually happening that you'll be captivated until the very last page. I thought Sarah's journey felt authentic and fully lived in. Sarah realizes that her marriage to David was flawed and possibly doomed. Their inability to have a child had created a wedge between them, and Sarah is forced to confront the reality that she wasn't the best wife. Complicating things further is the presence of Nate--David's younger and very handsome brother. Although Sarah doesn't want to admit it, she's always felt attracted to Nate and now she has the opportunity to pursue that feeling. Yet guilt and David's presence make things tricky. I got very involved in Sarah's story--and found myself conflicted about where I was hoping it would go. In the end, I think Brodie handled things fabulously and made all the right choices. If you're looking for an emotionally involving novel that deals intelligently with the issues of grief, mourning, marriage and love, this would be an excellent choice. Highly recommended!

I received this book as a gift, and really enjoyed it. I finished it in a very short period of time - it's one of those books that you don't want to put down until the end. By the time the end came, I wasn't sure what to think (about her husband, was he real or not, etc)- the conclusion was a surprise for me.

I picked this book up for an easy summer read and -- wow! It had me guessing the whole time -- is her husband dead or alive? Is she dreaming or living her real, new, altered life? Weeks after I read it, I still get chills thinking about certain parts of the story that were unsettling. Sarah is human and vulnerable, and this story is spellbinding. A good read.

Sarah McDonnell has lost her husband, David, to a kayaking accident, yet no body has ever been discovered. In hauntingly lyrical, smart prose we eerily journey through her grief and her "reality? " Is David haunting her? Is he alive? Is she simply in the throes of abject grief and unable to differentiate surreal from real?

This mysterious book is a page turner, but in a very romantic and magical way. The writing is just exquisite and Brodie invites many characters that make us suspicious even though they seem innocuous. What are there motives?

I was so impressed by this novel as it stretched my limits of mystery, imagery, and apparitions. Nothing is ever as you suspect and until the last page you are never quite sure what you are being asked to believe.

Very readable and beautifully composed.

I was totally intrigued by this novel and am still turning it over in my mind 2 weeks after finishing it!

Sarah McConnell sees her husband wearing his Yankees cap at the grocery store. She is shocked as David drowned kayaking three months ago though his body was never found. Later Sarah senses David is near and is not scared because she knows he will not harm her. She realizes as she sees him on the couch, she is not mourning him, but what they lost in the last few years of their marriage. He tells her they need a revival like what happened to him on the river when the storm suddenly hit and tipped over his kayak. He got to shore and made it back to their cabin, but felt it was too late to call Sarah. Instead he started painting.

Her brother-in-law Nate and Sarah are there for each other in grief but soon make love, but she is upset in the morning filled with guilt. Sarah comes to the cabin to see David and pick up paintings for a show a gallery owner is putting on of his works. David is thankful Sarah has not given up on him while Sarah is thankful she has a second chance to spend time with David until he asks her if he is dead to her. David wants Sarah to join him in a warm spot, but will she?

The premise of this fine paranormal contemporary, his visiting his widow after his death, is intriguing and well executed so that readers will believe David came back. The cast is extremely strong especially the lead characters and the brother. Though Sarah's affair with her brother-in-law is intended for the audience to understand two grieving people finding some solace with one another; instead it feels more of a shocker device to upset David. THE WIDOW SEASON is a wonderful relationship drama as a couple drifting apart in life reached out to each other in death.

Harriet Klausner